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Naval Aviation Today and in Prospect

By The Honorable David S. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics

Naval aviation today is the result of a post-war incorporation of aviation into our Navy. Prior thereto there was no such thing as naval aviation as now known. Before the World War the pioneers—Towers, Ellyson, Rodgers, Billingsley, Mustin, Richardson, and others—strove with inadequate and primitive material and insufficient appropriations to awaken the Navy to the possibilities of aircraft as a part of our sea operations. To them great credit is due, not only for their persistent, courageous efforts but also for their foresight that they laid so well the foundations or the future development of our naval aircraft operations. Their hands were responsible for initiating long before the war the catapult and carrier. Utilizing a crude arresting gear and a so-called catapult, takeoffs and landings were made from the old armored cruiser Pennsylvania. Then, too, the cruiser North Carolina was fitted to carry and operate a number of seaplanes.

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